CEX Tokens Suffer High Failure Rate: Only 10% Survive First Year

Nearly nine out of ten new tokens listed on major centralized exchanges (CEXs) fall below their debut price within one year, according to a recent report from CoinGecko.

The research firm's 2026 Spot CEX Report analyzed listing performance across the top 12 CEXs and found that only about 32% of newly listed tokens recorded positive price action in their first 30 days of trading. This number dropped sharply after 60 days, with just 25% of tokens remaining above water.

By the one-year mark, fewer than 10% of new listings still traded above their initial listing price on most platforms. Upbit posted the strongest short-term results, with 67% of its new listings finishing in the green after 30 days, but all of its newly listed tokens dropped below their debut price by the 300-day mark.

Interestingly, Coinbase was the only exchange where listed tokens saw a rebound after six months. The report also highlighted the dominance of stablecoins, with Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) accounting for 66.6% of all trading pairs and 97.7% of stablecoin-denominated pairs across the surveyed exchanges.

Total reserves across those platforms climbed 69.6%, rising from $152.1 billion in early 2024 to $225.4 billion by the end of February 2026, with Binance leading that growth by doubling its reserves from $46.7 billion to $93.4 billion.